HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 353 



Repeatedly branching at the geniculate lower nodes, the slender culms usu- 

 ally 20 to 50 cm. tall, the thin blades sparsely pilose, the slender spikes 2 to 

 8 cm. long, about 4 mm. thick, interrupted below, the bristles ascending, 

 exceeding the small turgid spikelets only 2 or 3 mm. 



Open ground Guatemala to Paraguay ; also Jamaica. Originally described 

 from a garden specimen in Vienna, the native country unknown, A weed in 

 fields and waste places in Jamaica, apparently introduced. 



48. PARATHERIA Griseb. 



Inflorescence a narrow spike, the solitary spikelets appressed to slender erect 

 branches, the ends of the branches produced beyond the spikelets as slender 

 awns, the articulation at the base of the branch, this forming a sharp callus 

 below the attached acuminate spikelet ; glumes minute or obsolete ; sterile 

 lemma equaling the subindurate fruit. 



1. Paratheria prostrata Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 236. 1866. 



Chamaeraphis parvigluma Munro ; Wright & Sauv. Anal. Acad. Cien. Habana 

 8: 208. 1871, nomen nudum. 



Panicum leptochyrium Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2': 150. 1877. 



A tufted decumbent perennial with sparingly branching culms 20 to 60 cm. 

 long, pubescent nodes, sheaths, and blades, and numerous slender spikes with 

 erect bristles and narrow acuminate spikelets about 8 mm. long. 



Low moist ground near Hanabana, Cuba, whence originally described from a 

 Wright collection in 1865, and Isle of Pines (Curtiss 461) ; also in Brazil. 

 Panicum leptochyrium described from Santarem. 



49. PENNISETUM Pers. 



Spikelets 1 te 3 together, subtended by a whorl of slender bristles (sterile 

 branchlets), subsessile along a common axis forming bristly spikes, the bristles 

 falling attached to the lanceolate spikelet. 



Bristles naked. 



Spike not over 5 cm. long, loose ; spikelets about 4 mm. long. 



1. P. domingense. 

 Spike about 10 cm. long, compact ; spikelets about 2 mm. long. 



2. P. antillarum. 

 Bristles or some of them plumose. 



Culms low and spreading ; involucre with a turbinate naked base. 



5. P. ciliare. 

 Culms erect, tall and rather stout ; involucre with no naked base. 

 Spikelets about 3 mm. long, solitary in the sessile involucre. 



3. P. setosum. 

 Spikelets about 5 mm. long, 2 or more in the peduncled involucre. 



4. P. orientale triflorum. 



1. Pennisetum domingense (Spreng.) Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1: 302. 1825. 

 Gymnothrix domingensis Spreng.; Schult. Mant. 2: 284. 1824. 



A tall glabrous perennial with elongate rigid internodes, fascicled or solitary 

 branches, short papery sheaths, small involute blades, and small loose pale 



spikes. 



Dry wooded slopes, eastern Cuba and Santo Domingo. Originally described 



from the latter. 



2. Pennisetum antillarum (Poir.) Desv. Opusc. 76. 1831. 

 Panicum antillarum Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 275. 1816. 

 Saccharumf antillarum Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2: 877. 1817. 



